Law 404
Week 3 Assignment
Van Anh Ngo
April 03 2022
Issue
Union-busting is prohibited by the National Labor Relations Act, which is a valid exercise of
commerce power. According to the Commerce Clause, Congress has the power to regulate
commerce, which means that commerce between states impacts more than one state.
Rule
According to Vargas, the NLRA regulates production or manufacturing, not interchange.
Vargas will argue that production was not intended to be interchangeable according to
Gibbons, even under some very expansive definitions of the term. In addition, Vargas will
argue that this already widely defined term must be narrowed further. If the federal
government had this much power, almost everything humans did would be regulated.
Therefore, the states would not be left with anything, since they are closer to the people.
Vargas' manufacturing operations are completely contained within one state, so a federal
regulatory scheme would not be warranted.
Application
Vargas' manufacturing operations are deemed part of the interstate flow of goods by the
government, which naturally requires the exchange of goods between states as well. A large
proportion of Vargas' revenue comes from sales outside the state of Arizona. Vargas'
manufacturing operations are an essential component of the interchange between Vargas and
its out-of-state customers, allowing them to move goods from Arizona to other states. Federal
regulations are also needed to address this problem, according to the government. It will be
harder for other states to protect their workers from similar abuses if employers in Arizona
are permitted to interfere with union organizing. Attempting to do so will result in employers
moving to another state that offers more freedoms to employers. The federal government is
the only one able to respond effectively to this kind of interstate spillover. This is one of the
great geniuses of the Constitution, observed Chief Justice Marshall in Gibbons, in that it
grants the national government tremendous power over such issues, but leaves purely local
concerns to the state governments.
Conclusion
Despite the closeness of the case, the government has a solid argument that manufacturing is
part of commerce, and the government has a solid argument that union-busting by large
businesses can only be dealt with by the federal government. Accordingly, the NLRA is
likely to be viewed as a valid exercise of the commerce power by a court.